Where is the college dorm room where a struggling student started Dell computers? And why are there thousands and thousands of bats in Austin? Find the answers to these questions and many more in Secret Austin: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Learn about the lost-cause oil rig that became a gusher and funded higher education for generations. Follow in the footsteps of famous Austinites like Janis Joplin, Farrah Fawcett, and Matthew McConaughey. With life long journalists and Austin fans Cheryl and Les Thomas as your guides, you re bound to find more than a few surprises about Austin even if you ve lived there forever. Whether you're a slacker, an entrepreneur, a poet, or just a bluebonnet admirer, you ll find Austin s most fascinating hidden gems, strange history, and obscure trivia in their guide to the City of the Violet Crown. How did a soldier left for dead on a Civil War battlefield make it to Austin and help build a world-class university? Where is the college dorm room where a struggling student started Dell computers? And why are there thousands and thousands of bats in Austin? Find the answers to these questions and many more in Secret Austin: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Learn about the lost-cause oilrig that became a gusher and funded higher education for generations. Follow in the footsteps of famous Austinites like Janis Joplin, Farrah Fawcett, and Matthew McConaughey. With life long journalists and Austin fans Cheryl and Les Thomas as your guides, you're bound to find more than a few surprises about Austin"€"even if you've lived there forever. Whether you're a slacker, an entrepreneur, a poet, or just a bluebonnet admirer, you'll find Austin's most fascinating hidden gems, strange history, and obscure trivia in their guide to the "City of the Violet Crown." Cheryl and Les Thomas are lifelong journalists and lifelong Austin fans. Following college, they were both reporters at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Cheryl taught English in the public schools for more than 30 years and was a wire service reporter, while Les joined Southern Living Magazine as a travel editor and senior writer. They still live in Austin and when they aren t traveling and writing, they operate an Angus cattle ranch near Bertram. Les is an award winning writer and longtime member of the Society of American Travel Writers who has been honored with the Governor s award from the Texas Department of Tourism.